Six Hundred Wasn't Enough
by Kaycee Columbell
Summary: When can their glory fade? Oh, the wild charge they made. Set at the end of Failsafe. Season One. One-shot.


**~~ Do not own. Yep. ~~**

* * *

"Martian Manhunter, get Miss Martian out of here. We'll catch up once we get through these doors."

Kid Flash heard Robin say it. Wally trusted Dick. However, the situation was different now. It took a moment for him to realize his best friend was lying. As the Martians phased away, Kid Flash glanced at the aliens following them, then to Robin. His holo-computer was up, showing what must have been the timer for the bombs. _Sixteen seconds._

He looked back up at Robin's face, their eyes meeting. Wally knew, that behind his mask, Dick was feeling the same way he was. Perhaps he wasn't, though. Dick always had a habit of being unpredictable. Kid Flash snapped back to the present, realizing that they weren't going to make it and determined to go out fighting. He nodded to Robin. Robin nodded back, whether in agreement or encouragement Kid Flash didn't know.

"Forward," was all Robin said. Then they charged. A disintegration ray missed Kid Flash by inches. He barreled into an alien, knocking it into a wall. Somewhere behind him, over all the sounds of fighting, he heard Robin's voice once again.

"Charge for the guns." It was a statement. Not an order. As though Robin was talking to nobody in particular. This confused Wally. Kid Flash found himself pausing to look over to his best friend, who had just thrown a birdarang at one of his attackers. He must have sensed Wally looking, because he turned around to stare back. Just as Kid Flash opened his mouth to talk, he was cut off by the hero opposite him.

"Theirs not to make reply." Another statement. _Nine seconds._ More aliens came. Both heroes ran to confront them. Yet Wally could still hear Robin's voice in the background.

"Theirs not to reason why." _Seven seconds. _He ran as fast as he could. Smashing into anything thing that moved.

"Theirs but to do and die." _Five seconds._ He ran towards Robin's voice.

"Into the valley of Death." _Three seconds._ He made it to his best friend.

"Rode the six hundred." It was a whisper now. Their eyes met for the last time. Then the world turned red.

* * *

Wally jolted awake, images of what happened still pouring into his head as he looked around frantically for the aliens that had killed all of his friends.

* * *

Now, he is standing outside Robin's door. He's been here for a few minutes, even though he knows the combination to get in. Finally, he took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked in.

The first thing he noticed was that Dick's clock was an hour slow. He stared at in a moment, before finally looking at the figure on the bed. Dick was propped up against the headboard, reading a book; _A Tale of Two Cities._ His glasses are on the nightstand, and he didn't even seem to notice Wally. There's a chance Dick was ignoring him, too.

Quietly shutting the door, Wally crossed the room and gently sat on the foot of the bed. There was a few minutes of silence in which Wally's eyes went back to the clock. It didn't make sense to set a perfectly good clock an hour slow. It could seriously mess you up in the morning. If he-

"Charge of the light brigade." Wally's head snapped over to look at Dick, who had finally put his book down and was looking right back at him.

"What?"

"What I was quoting, in the... simulation," Dick looked down as he was talking, "It was a poem, called The Charge of the Light Brigade."

"Oh." Wally knew he sounded like an idiot, but he was at a loss. Everything he wanted to say before he entered the room seemed to have been erased from his mind like a chalkboard. So he just listened to Dick as he continued.

"It's about a group of six hundred soldiers, who are told to charge against the enemy. They have to listen, even though they know it's a suicide mission." Dick was still looking down, clutching his book in his lap. Wally couldn't look away.

"They fought hard, but in the end most of them didn't make it back." Wally felt himself tense, as he started to see where Dick was going with this.

"Yet the poem tells about how the glory they earned that day, even though they failed, will live on forever." At last, Dick lifted his head to meet the emerald eyes that were boring into him.

"It's kind of like what we do, isn't it?" When Wally didn't answer, he continued. "An enemy attacks, and we're expected to fight them. It's gotten to the point where we don't really have a choice, no matter how dangerous the situation is. Of course we're going to try our hardest. We fight for our lives. We fight for _other people's_ lives. That doesn't guarantee us safety. It could end up being our last battle. The people we fought for will honor us afterwards, no matter what happened. Because at least we _tried._" At this, Dick looked away again, holding onto his book as though it were his lifeline. "I guess that's why I said it during the simulation. It just seemed to fit."

Wally could see Dick's outer facade cracking. It was in his eyes. In that, he had no doubt. Getting up from his spot, Wally walked to where Dick was at the head of the bed. He sat down, propping himself against the headboard alongside his best friend. They sat there for a few peaceful minutes, taking comfort from just being near their honorary brother. Again, it was the younger of the two that broke the silence.

"It wasn't enough." Wally looked down at Dick, his unasked question shown in his eyes. Dick understood immediately.

"The six hundred soldiers. They fought their hardest, but in the end, six hundred just wasn't enough." Yet another statement.


End file.
